ALMEIDA, SANTIAGO, SR.

ALMEIDA, SANTIAGO, SR. (1911–1999). Santiago Almedia, Sr., bajo sexto player, was born in Skidmore, Texas, on July 25, 1911. Almeida, along with accordion player Narciso Martínez, is best-known for his pioneering work in helping shape the early development of Texas-Mexican conjunto music.

Almeida was born into a family of farmers who played music during their free time. As a teenager, Almeida began playing the bajo sexto in his family’s band, La Orquesta Almeida, in the Lower Rio Grande Valley area. The bajo sexto is a twelve-string guitar, which is often used to provide rhythm and bass in conjunto music.

Photograph, Narciso Martinez (standing with accordion) and Santiago Almeida (sitting with bajo sexto). Image courtesy of American Sabor, Smithsonian Institute. Image available on the Internet and included in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.

In 1935 Almeida joined accordionist Narciso Martínez, and the two helped forge the modern conjunto sound. Previously, conjunto music relied on the accordion for melody and bass notes, while small drums or other instruments provided rhythm. However, Santiago Almeida helped change this by playing rhythm and bass lines on the bajo sexto, thereby allowing Martínez to focus on performing more intricate melodies on the accordion. By 1936, at the Blue Bonnet Hotel in San Antonio, Almeida and Martínez began recording for Bluebird Records and cut their hit song “La Chicharronera,” a polka, widely regarded as the first commercial conjunto recording. Soon Almeida and Martínez became the “most imitated and sought-after conjunto musicians in South Texas.” During the mid-to-late 1930s Almeida and Martínez recorded almost sixty records. They continued to perform, primarily along the Texas-Mexico border, during the 1940s and recorded for the Ideal and Disco de Oro labels.

After World War II Almeida’s career began to slow down as his family grew. In order to make a living, Almeida and his family had to join migrant farm workers as they traveled northward following the crop harvests. Almeida eventually settled in the 1950s in Washington State, where he picked apples and other crops and performed odd jobs. Though his recording career had ended, Almeida continued to play at family and community functions. He also began teaching younger musicians to play the bajo sexto. In 1987 Almeida was inducted into the Conjunto Music Hall of Fame in San Antonio. In 1993 he received the Governor’s Heritage Award in Seattle, Washington, and a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Santiago Almeida, Sr., died on July 8, 1999, in Sunnyside, Washington. He was inducted into the Texas Conjunto Music Hall of Fame in 2005.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Ramiro Burr, The Billboard Guide to Tejano and Regional Mexican Music (New York: Billboard books, 1999). Gary Hartman, The History of Texas Music (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2008). National Endowment for the Arts, “NEA National Heritage Fellowships: Santiago Almeida” (http://www.nea.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/fellow.php?id=1993_01), accessed September 3, 2009. Manuel Peña, Música Tejana: The Cultural Economy of Artistic Transformation (College Station: Texas A& M University Press). Manuel Peña, The Texas-Mexican Conjunto: History of a Working-Class Music (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1985).

Image Use Disclaimer

All copyrighted materials included within the Handbook of Texas Online are in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 related to Copyright and “Fair Use” for Non-Profit educational institutions, which permits the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA), to utilize copyrighted materials to further scholarship, education, and inform the public. The TSHA makes every effort to conform to the principles of fair use and to comply with copyright law.